Carl Greer – Change the Story of Your Health
And they not only feel shocked when they catch themselves in the mirror, but they also feel ashamed at the thought that they were just fooling themselves. But you say that maintaining that positive mindset in this regard can help us stay healthier and younger. Tell us some of the research behind this.
CARL GREER: Well, again, back to this shamanic idea that everything is connected, that is a view that energy medicine practitioners would share. If that is so, then our thoughts and our emotions carry information, just like medicine carries information. And if we have thoughts that we are vibrant and healthy people at some level, we believe that and that belief resonates throughout our organs and our molecules in a healthy way. I believe, and I think the research is that people who see themselves as vigorous tend to be more vigorous, even if there would be other measures like looking in the mirror that would suggest “Gee, you are getting older, Carl.”
SANDRA SEDGBEER: “Change the Story of Your Health” is filled with real-life stories, very compelling stories. One that got my attention is the story about Maria, who had all kinds of health problems and things happening with her feet and numbness, and how much better she felt after you encouraged her to journey to the Quiet. What is the Quiet, and how can we utilize it to change our stories?
CARL GREER: Of all of the journeys that I suggest in my book, and ones that I personally experienced, “The Quiet” is a place that I encountered which was for me the place before creation that I talked about earlier, the place of pure potential. I got to it in a way which I have suggested that people who work with me use as the starting point for their journey to the Quiet, but then they find their own way to get there.
It is that place of pure potential where I believe we came from, will go back to, and it has energy, but it is the place before the idea, the form of the idea, before the energization of an idea. So, when this woman went there, there was a healing aspect to it that she encountered. And she had a very real phenomenological physical result that stayed with her.
SANDRA SEDGBEER: In shamanic work, balance is always a goal. So the book says that when we remove something energetically, we also must bring something in. Why is that? Why do we have to have something come in as well?
CARL GREER: There is this idea of balance. If you think about Chinese Medicine or acupuncture, often the thought is that you want to put the needle so that a place that needs more gets more, a place that needs less gets less. I have always been a believer that when you take something out, you want to fill it with something. And, more than that, when you take something out you want to put it someplace. I always think about putting it into the earth or into the cosmos, so it gets metabolized and changed to pure energy again.
Then I fill it with the light of the Quiet, this pure light of creation where I think then healing can take place. Though, if you have disease any place in your body, you get rid of that and then that space I fill with light energy and, because I believe everything is connected in that intent, leads to where the energy goes, and that energy follows intent. You now have something in your system that is going to influence your organs and your molecular structure in ways that are healthier than before you did that practice.
SANDRA SEDGBEER: You give some wonderful exercises leading people into spaces. You said earlier about the preparatory practices, including the opening and closing of the sacred space. Would it be a critical thing if we did not remember to open and close the space?
CARL GREER: I think that spirit is very forgiving. When I first was learning these things, Sandie, I really wanted it to be so precise. I wanted to do this in this way and that way, but I think that if the intent is to honor these mysteries and to ask spirit for aspects of itself or herself to work with us so that we are honoring but also enlisting particular energies from – if you are in a particular tradition – those traditions.
I have several shamanic traditions from which I have come, so I will call in energies from those traditions. But somebody else could have maybe Celtic traditions, or Native American traditions of North America itself. Or, just honoring “I know there are mysteries greater than I, come work with me as I am doing this work;” that could be it.
Now to your question: if you forget to do it, I do not think it is the end of the world. But I think to do it in a certain formal way by ritualizing, at least to that degree, it potentiates the work in my opinion. But, if you forget about it, it does not mean that it is going to be a failure.
SANDRA SEDGBEER: Carl Greer, Jungian analysts work a great deal with archetypes, and I am not certain, but I would hazard a guess, that shamans do, too. How can the death archetype help us change our story about our health, particularly for someone who might be facing death?
CARL GREER: Well, let us take the people who are facing death, but are having difficulties making endings of certain things that are not serving them. So, to work with the energy of death to help prune that which needs to be pruned to allow new life or new health is useful, and I have a practice to do that.
But let us say you are facing a terminal illness and you will be experiencing death sooner than you might otherwise, to have a conversation with death while you are alive, for many people, instead of being scary is very healing. They gain a whole new insight into the relationship between life and death, so in both cases to take a journey to death can be very healing and energizing in a paradoxical way.
SANDRA SEDGBEER: What about the global mind, or Carl Jung’s collective consciousness? I mean, do you think that we can be picking up negative imprints that can be affecting our health?
CARL GREER: Absolutely. You know, Carl Jung talked mostly about the collective unconscious, where a shaman would say at some level everything is connected to everything else, which I believe. You were saying collective consciousness, and I think there is a certain element of that of which we are aware collectively does not influence us.
I mean, think about if you have been in the presence of, say, a negative person. If you are like most of us, that can affect you. It can affect your mood, and your mood can affect your hormones and your adrenals and your physicality, and if you are in a world right now where there seems to be a certain amount of anxiety and fear and discord I think, certainly, those energies can impact us physically in ways that can be detrimental.
SANDRA SEDGBEER: You offer one of your expanded awareness practices. You write about the Sun Greeting. Now, we have been hearing a lot of evidence lately about the sun and how we are not getting enough of it, and how important it is for vision, for our eyes, and for many other things as well. Would you be prepared to take us through that practice?
CARL GREER: It is, basically, if you can be up at dawn, or even if you are not, honoring the energy of the sun and greeting it and feeling that the sun is in some ways the author of life on this earth. You know, without the sun we would not have any sustenance, we would not have growing things, we would not have night and day or warmth.
So, get up and look out at the sky. Do not look directly at the sun, but just feel the sensation of the sun on your face and let the light penetrate your eyelids, and just be present to it. In these experiences, I think it is important to not think too much but just be present and focus on your breath.
Then, you might ask yourself with your eyes closed, what question you might want to ask the sun. For example, you might say “What can you tell me about my health?” and wait for the answer. You may get the answer in the form of an image, through a word or sensation. And then you might ask, “What can you take away from me that would be healthy for me to have taken away?”
Then, you might ask the sun, “What can you give me?” So, each time just wait until you get an answer, or not, and then, when you sense it is the right time, thank the sun for working with you. You might use this as a time to express gratitude for being alive and having the opportunity of even doing this ritual.
About Carl Greer
Carl Greer, PhD, PsyD, is a practicing clinical psychologist, Jungian analyst and shamanic practitioner. He teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, is on staff at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being, and enjoys involvement with various charities. For more information, visit www.CarlGreer.com. “Change the Story of Your Health Using Shamanic and Jungian Techniques,” published by Findhorn Press; available anywhere good books are sold.
